Preparative isolation and purification of 12,13-dihydroxyeuparin from Radix Eupatorii Chinensis by high-speed counter-current chromatography

An efficient method for the isolation and purification of 12,13-dihydroxyeuparin from Radix Eupatorii Chinensis by high speed counter-current chromatography (HSCCC) was established in this paper.The ether extracts of Radix Eupatorii Chinensis were purified by HSCCC with a solvent system of hexyl hydride ethyl acetate-methanol-water (1∶2∶1∶2,v/v/v/v).The upper phase was used as the stationary phase and the lower phase as the mobile phase.About 8.4 mg of 12,13-dihydroxyeuparin was obtained from 200 mg of ether extracts from Radix Eupatorii Chinensis in one-step HSCCC separation,with the purity of 96.71%,as determined by HPLC.After methanolwater recrystallization,the purity of 12,13-dihydroxyeuparin reached 99.83%.Such a simple and effective method was fairly useful to prepare pure compound as reference substances for related study on Radix Eupatorii Chinensis.